WASHINGTON – After meeting US President Joe Biden in Washington, Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he wants to buy F-35 fighter jets to counter Turkish aggressions and blasted Turkey’s so-called Blue Homeland doctrine which envisions occupying more space in the Aegean and East Mediterranean.

Turkey’s pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper that’s a propaganda outlet for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that, “Greece is once again engaging in provocations,” and that Mitsotakis showed up at the White House meeting with a map of the “Blue Homeland” in a bid to target Turkey.

Similar allegations were contained in the pro-government Yet Safak newspaper, while a report in the Milliyet daily described Greece as “the 51st state of the United States.”

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias – who was upset that the United States wants to sell F-16s to Turkey – nevertheless said Washington looks at Greece as a reliable partner.

“The (political) system in the US has come to see Greece as a loyal partner and as a member of a (shared) value system: a system of democracies, a system where countries hold that the world must be governed by laws and rules,” he said after meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.

“Turkey, on the other hand, is an erratic partner that does not hesitate to violate the rules and which is often driven by strong revisionism,” he said. “All this is clear by now, I believe,” he said, reported Kathimerini.

Turkey cites the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne – which it doesn’t recognize – when demanding Greece take troops off Aegean islands but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan still has huge sway in countering the European Union, NATO and even the US.

Turkey bought Russian-made S-400 missile systems that undermine NATO and could be used against Greece in a conflict and Erdogan said he would veto any hopes of Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.